PHOENIXVILLE — In just its second year of competition, the Phoenixville Area High School Academic Team is headed to the National Championships in Atlanta.

“It’s pretty big,” said Ron McColl, the team’s lead advisor. “I guess, to put it in perspective, eight teams from Pennsylvania are going there.”

In all, the Phoenixville team can expect to join approximately 250 teams from across the country, including the powerhouse areas like New York and Washington D.C., at the championship on Memorial Day weekend.

McColl, who is a teacher in the high school’s English department, is joined in coaching and advising the academic team by Ryan Curley, also from the English department.

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“The high school just asked us to play in the local league and coach the team last year,” McColl said.

Phoenixville mostly played in competitions for Chester County in their inaugural season, but did expand on occasion.

“I discovered last spring that there were these open tournaments,” McColl said. “We tried a couple last year and we got creamed and realized that’s where the real competition is.”

Since then, Phoenixville has continued facing out-of-county competition and made great strides.

“We have just gotten really competitive,” McColl said. “We haven’t lost to anybody outside of the top 100 in the last two or three tournaments.”

Even in those losses, the matches were tight, according to McColl.

Typically, Phoenixville enters two four-player teams into tournaments. For nationals, only one team will head south.

McColl said that team will be made up of Phoenixville captain Gina Vitale, Savannah Mudd, Ben Cushing, India Reiss and alternate Aubrey Halloran.

The team traveled to New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland to take on tougher competition and to qualify for the national championship.

Becoming a strong team hasn’t been without effort.

About 25 students participate in the academic team. Every morning, before school, around 6:30 a.m., students can come in to practice and hone their intellect.

“I told them, ‘If this were a sport you were playing, you’d be practicing every day,’” McColl said.

“It’s obvious that the training and the hard work has paid off,” said Phoenixville Area High School Principal Craig Parkinson, honoring the team during a school board workshop meeting Jan. 10.

“We’re putting in tons of time,” McColl said.

Currently, the team is preparing for its final tournament before nationals, a contest in Lancaster April 6, and fundraising to cover the costs of their trip to Atlanta.

The national tournament will test Phoenixville, but McColl said the team hopes to crack the top 100.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s not a typical tournament where you can go in and beat half the teams,” McColl said. “I do think we have the chance to do well. We’ve improved so much over the year.”